Resources

The Luther Quincentenary

Professor Andrew Pettegree's talk will look at the Reformation through the lens of the history of printing. The Reformation both revolutionized the market and stimulated crucial innovations in the design and selling of books. This began in Wittenberg, where the partnership of Martin Luther and Lucas Cranach played a critical role in shaping the Reformation pamphlet. In lands more hostile to the Reformation the design task was more complex, since design features intended to facilitate identification could place the seller or owner in deadly danger. The paper concludes with an examination of the market for devotional literature in the Dutch Republic, the home to Europe’s most buoyant centre of book production.

Professor Pettegree is the author of over a dozen books in the fields of Reformation history and the history of communication including Reformation and the Culture of Persuasion (Cambridge University Press, 2005), The Book in the Renaissance (Yale University Press, 2010) and The Invention of News (Yale University Press, 2014). His most recent book, Brand Luther: 1517, Print and the Making of the Reformation (Penguin USA) was published in October 2015 and now been translated into Dutch and German.

The lecture will be chaired by Dr Brian Lang CBE, FRSE and will be followed by a reception.

Whilst the event is free, donations to the cost of the evening would be appreciated.